Alexander McQueen Knucklebox Clutch

Ever since these first came out I have been dying for one. The Alexander McQueen version retails for $2,195 and up so obviously I would never own a real one so I set off to find a way to make one. I had originally planned on making the box clutch and then making the brass knuckles part by gluing together 4 separate rings, but I was able to find a much better and easier way to do it!

The picture at the start of the post is my version of the Knucklebox Clutch and the one directly above is the real one. Mine cost me just 30$ to make saving me over $2,100!! I started by ordering the clutch frame from this Etsy store. They have gold and silver frames with a wide variety of shapes and stone colors on the knuckle rings. It took a long time to get here (over 2 weeks) but that was expected as it came from Beijing and it was great quality once it got here so it was worth the wait. It comes in 3 parts: 2 plastic shells and the frame.

Start off by picking what kind of fabric you want your clutch to be covered in. I used a black upholstery vinyl with a lizard print that I had left over from another project. Cut a piece slightly bigger than one of your shells. Start covering it by gluing the long sides first. Apply a thin line of E600 along the top of the inside edge and fold the fabric over, then hold in place with clothespins. Do the same for the other long side, and repeat on the other shell. The shorter sides are where things get a little bit tricky. You just kind of have to apply a line of glue and then pull and stretch the fabric so that it smoothly covers the corners. Set these in place with clothespins and let dry, repeat on the other shell.

Once you have the outsides covered you can stop here if you don’t care about what the inside looks like. I wanted to line mine so I cut two rectangles of black silk, sewed my label onto the middle of one and glued the lining inside over the seams of the vinyl. The shells then just snap into the frame.

Your clutch is now done! I couldn’t believe how inexpensive and easy this designer DIY ended up being and I really couldn’t get over how close to the real one it looked. I am definitely going to order more frames and play around with different textiles and colors to cover the outsides with!

Hi Danielle! Thank you for posting this. I had one but it got stolen when I was at the bar. I’ve been looking for one for the longest time. The frame you said you found off of etsy. What did you look it up under? Brass knuckle clutch frame? I would live your help 🙂 thanks again!

Yes, I got it off of Etsy {the link to the original store I purchased it from is in the post but for whatever reason the color didn’t change so it was hard to see!} but they no longer sell the frames in that particular store. I typed in knuckle frame in the Etsy search bar and tons of options turned up so I would try that!